Heavenly Afrodite of the People
by Ailia Athena
Summary: Whether we are made in God's image, or Gods' in ours, there are some parts of identity we must grow into.
1. Chapter 1

It was a beautiful day and the waves sparkled under the Sun's warm beams. All around her the Nereides played, but Aphrodite was not in the mood for their antics today. Instead, she floated near a sandbar and crafted the foam there into shapes. She had created an intricate bower of the diaphanous sea spray by the time one of the nymphs noticed her separation and came over.

"What's up big A?" the girl asked. Her name was Kymodoke and she had probably come over hoping that Aphrodite had discovered some new diversion so interesting that she was keeping it to herself. In fact, foam-sculping was one of the first bits of amusement Aphrodite had learned upon joining the Nereides and she did it now more as instinct than with any real intent. Now however, she found that it did serve a purpose, because she could use it to cover the real reason for her isolation which was a despair over Nerites. They had fought yesterday, again, and his words were rolling through her head like thunder, a storm that would not end.

Aphrodite forced herself to greet the nymph and show her the fruits of her hands', if not her mind's, labors. But she soon saw that it was not enough; Kymodoke looked at her expectantly. Life on the ocean was monotonous and when new entertainment could not be invented, the divine inhabitants turned on whatever, or whoever, was convenient to entertain them. It was a natural fact that nothing was private and even the rulers of the Sea, Poseidon and his wife Amphitrite, were acceptable subjects of gossip for all. Although she was not interested in many of the trivial slights that inspired days of vicious opprobrium, it was expected that Aphrodite would do her part to fill the tedium of immortality on the open sea. And, truth be told, she could usually be counted on for a new word or at least opinion on some of the juiciest affairs and love triangles that were both common and officially proscribed. However, since Aphrodite was in the unique position of knowing even the most intimate details of the most recent scandal, today was going to be the exception.

Thinking quickly, Aphrodite plastered a conspiratorial look on her face and called up one of the clam shells from the ocean bed. As if she had been planning this bit of mischief all day long she pulled her companion close and whispered excitedly in her ear. The nymph laughed delightedly and then stifled herself.

"Oh, let me go first, Beauty!" she exclaimed. Recently, all the nymphs had begun calling her Beauty. There was no doubt that she was, and stunningly so, but Aphrodite never felt that it was a compliment. It was a name that set her outside the close-knit circle of impetuous and desultory daughters of Nereus and Doris. Still, it was not the sort of thing one could take offense at and she was beginning to get used to it.

Together the two girls called the Wind and Zephyr wasn't far away. The West Wind blew in the spring, and, unlike his brothers, never turned down an invitation to play with the lighthearted spirits of the sea. Kymodoke climbed up and shouted her instructions to the Wind and soon she was screaming with joyful terror and gripping the edges of the shell as Zephyr blew the bed of foam it rested on skimming dementedly across the waves. Soon the whole bevy of nymphs had lost interest in their game of tag and began fighting for a place in line for the shell.

Having fulfilled her responsibility to the amusement of the group, and convinced that she would not be missed any time soon, Aphrodite quickly made another foam bed and, climbing on, pushed off in the opposite direction. She lay on her stomach and put her head on her hands.

"If Nerites loved me, he would notice that I am not with the others and find me," she said out loud. This made very little sense given that she had just deliberately set out not to be noticed, but she felt that sense was not relevant to her current situation. Suddenly it seemed completely unacceptable to be alone, and Aphrodite pulled a passing mollusc out of the water and set it on the foam in front of her then she repeated her statement adding, "don't you think so?"

The mollusc said nothing, which was perfectly acceptable to Aphrodite who continued."Can you believe he left me? He had better not think that I will wait around for him!" She tossed her hair imperiously. "At least it wasn't one of those stupid bitches. At least it was someone who mattered."

She looked down at the mollusc through narrowed eyes, then said, "Do you promise not to tell anyone this?"

She took its silence for consent and then continued in a much smaller voice than before."I wouldn't have left him if it were me. I know Poseidon is a way better catch than me, but if he had ever come asking me to come back to him, I so would have stayed with Nerites."

Suddenly agitated she slapped the foam and her hand went through it and splashed the briny water below. "I know what the girls would say, they don't even think that I was ever with Poseidon in the first place but I was. I barely even remember it, but I know it was him because he raised our baby and why would he do that if he wasn't the father? I mean, most guys don't even do that, and it must mean that he cared about me ..." she trailed off.

"Do you think that Poseidon really cares about Nerites?" She waited for the mollusc's response for a moment, then continued.

"Nerites doesn't deserve him," Aphrodite started off angrily then caught herself. "Does that make me a bad person? I really do love Nerites. He really wants me, you know? And he treats me differently than the Nereides, but in a good way, like I'm special. And I don't care what they say, it's not because I'm easy. They're all hypocrites anyway because they are all having sex, too, they just act like they don't. I heard Actaea goes out and lies on the shore and just goes with whoever shows up. At least Nerites really cares about me. And Poseidon did too, more than that old Amphitrite anyway. Oh, don't look at me that way. Fine, I guess Amphitrite's okay even if she is just like all the others. I thought that maybe one day Nerites and me were going to be like them. And how could I be enough for him. I mean, every guy roams."

She paused for a long moment, then sat up and pushed her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. "I didn't think he'd leave me though."

The sky was beginning to darken, but Aphrodite wasn't ready to rejoin the nymphs. Besides, at night Nerites might return to the grotto and she definitely wasn't ready to see him. Trailing her fingers in the water, Aphrodite sat and waited until the sun went down and then she watched the stars. When she finally got sleepy she kissed the mollusc on the shell and pulled the foam around her until she drifted off.


	2. Chapter 2

**A little after the beginning, perhaps. Would you be interested in reading more?  
**

**-----**

The men were sipping nectar and sitting on cushions, but they were not their normal nonchalant selves. Tonight they were planning a hunt and their prey was so close they could smell her. The darkest and most muscular of the three leaned in, his black eyes gleaming in the night lamplight. The cool breeze from the window did nothing to dry the sweat on his forehead.

"When do we begin?" he asked, hoarse after hours of anticipation. He was the first to ask although the men had thought of little other than their game's salty scent since it first cut through the heavy perfumes of Olympus that morning. Their gathering in the Patriarch's quarters had not been discussed but was an inevitability. It was not rare for them to meet there, but the silence was extraordinary. It surprised none of the three that it had been Ares who spoke first. It was his brother who replied.

"The question is not when, but how," he ran his fingers through golden curls that seemed tarnished in the flickering light. "Your mother has not helped us tonight, I'm afraid. Little surprise there." His glance flicked to their father whose mouth quirked into a grin as he stared at his krater.

Ares, though, looked up in consternation. "What are you talking about, she put the girl right there. Right there! In my mother's old room! We can all reach her! She couldn't have found any place more accessible to us all," he punctuated each sentence by slapping his thighs.

"You're an idiot," the younger god said mildly. Again he looked to his father. "Lord, you have more experience with her maneuvering," he smiled now and his teeth gleamed. Another god, perhaps, would not have risked so close to an insult of the King of Gods' wife to his face, but from Hermes it was flattery. "Does a solution jump to mind?"

Ares slapped his legs again in disgust. "And why they call you clever is beyond me. Hermes, there is no barrier! The door to her chamber is connected to this very room, there is no lock. There are no brutes my mother would trust to guard such a beauty in her own bedroom. She is ours for the taking, whichever of us we decide should take!"

"Have you forgotten Peitho?" Hermes did not even bother to look at him, still waiting for their father's answer, but he knew that Ares' face would be blank. The swarthy god had not forgotten Peitho, but only because he had never bothered to know her in the first place.

"What is she, some avenging freak like the Furies?" Ares sneered. "Maybe you couldn't take her, brother, but I will not fly away and neither would father." "No I would not," the oldest of the group spoke now, but his tone did not carry the supportive call to battle that Ares had been expecting. "Peitho is too dear to my own cause to hide from. But perhaps she is the answer after all. Persuasion holds reign in my wife's rooms, and for all that you have little to do with her, it was her presence on the night I first went to your mother in marriage that even allowed you to exist."

The dark god's eyebrows knit together in disbelief for a moment, but soon he was plowing ahead. "Fine, but when do we -"

This time Hermes did not wait for him to finish the question, "Not when -" he began.

"-but how to win her," Lord Zeus finished and sipped from his huge krater. "Strategy is not your strong suit, mighty Ares," he said kindly.

Ares looked offended. "I still don't see what the problem is," he declared. "And frankly, I'm not interested in sitting and discussing twenty plans of attack when I could hurl a spear and hit her from here."

Hermes snorted. "Only you would hurl a spear at a woman you want to seduce."

"I didn't mean -" he started to respond, but Hermes had already turned back to Zeus.

"Do you have a plan, father?" the blonde asked ingenuously, but Zeus knew his son too well to believe his expression. A single prize there might be, but it was cunning competition, not respectful collaboration, that would lead them to it. That said, there was no reason not to play along and so the King of the gods smiled his most paternal and benevolent smile. Ares took a deep breath and listened.

"Let Peitho play the matriarch and give her a taste of the power we can offer her. This is one of my wife's women, after all," Zeus chuckled.

Ares began figeting unhappily again. "Are we talking about the monster again? Can't we just make a move on the lady? Did you smell her when she got here? Pure salt! I have got to get to her before she starts smelling damp and cloudy like all the other boring women up here," he whined.

"I don't see anybody stopping you, my boisterous brother," Hermes commented. Ares looked quizzical for a brief moment, but as the meaning became clear his face brightened. "Well then," he said in a deeper voice and he straightened his shoulders, seeming even larger and darker than he had. "I appreciate the sacrifice from you two, although I am sure that there will be other young goddesses of great, if not quite so incredible, beauty coming around the palace someday soon. Don't lose confidence!" he added magnanimously, then stood up and walked straight for the door that led to his mother's chambers.

Hermes and Zeus watched the god knock loudly once and then enter the rooms. They craned their heads to try and see around him, but the door soon closed again and the two looked back to each other. Zeus shook his head ruefully and Hermes looked bemused. "Shall we wager on how long?" Hermes flipped a copper coin from Pharai deftly between his fingers and then vanished it with slight of hand.

"I suppose he doesn't really have much of a chance," Zeus responded with apparent, and completely false, regret, "but perhaps none of us really do. Peitho is no fool, she knows how to lead a man astray - in fact, she may be at least partly to blame for my most recent marriage. And even if my ploy works, do you suppose that this new female - she is calling herself Aphrodite."

"Best not to forget that when the moment ripens!" Hermes interjected.

Zeus continued as if he hadn't spoken, "Do you suppose she will just throw herself at your feet? She has been that beautiful for a while, and if she knows the value of her charms the cost to win them will be high." Zeus looked defeated. Hermes only smiled, "How do you win the best end of a bargain?" he mused. "What?" His father had looked lost.

Hermes looked up, "If there's a man with a one-of-a-kind pot that you know to be priceless, how do you get a good deal?"

Zeus raised his black eyebrows, "Son, maybe you didn't get a good look at this woman but she was standing naked as a nymph in front of me and begging my blessing. She is no pot."

"Humor me, father."

"Fine. Then I appear to them in a little of my glory and they give it to me, but I doubt that will work with the girl since she is not, in fact, a mortal."

"Pretend for a moment you are not a god," Hermes persisted.

"I think you are pushing this analogy too far," the god rumbled impatiently.

Hermes smiled, "Well, since I am so often your representative with the shorter-lived inhabitants of the Earth, I have found it an interesting exercise in my spare moments. The point is, you tell the pot vendor his wares are shit. Not only have you seen them elsewhere and of higher quality, they were cheaper there, too! Women are no different. A man is the only measure they can have for their worth and if we can cheapen them enough we can have them for free." He grinned. "And then, when they are giving it away, you make them feel like they are made of gold and adamantine when they are with you."

Zeus chuckled and touseled his son's hair. "Sometimes I wonder if I have taught you too well."

The door between the rooms opened again and Ares stumbled back in. The two sitting gods looked up expectantly at the obviously confused and concerned God of War. Ares looked to his father first,  
"Do you think my left bicep is bigger?" he raised both his arm and flexed, looking from one to the other. "I mean, I didn't think so, but she made a good point about my angle of vision being inadequate. What do you think?"

Hermes rolled his eyes in disgust, "Oh, please, you didn't get any further than that? You are no help at all. I don't know why we even let you come tonight." He shook his head. "Honestly!" he swore.

"What? Does that mean you think that they're even?" Ares continued anxiously. "They're fine, son. Just get a good night's rest and check out your mirror in the morning." Zeus tried to sound like he cared and failed, but Ares didn't notice.

"Oh! My mirror! I didn't think of that. Yeah, because I checked mom's but Peitho told me that the bronze wasn't beaten evenly so that proved that they were uneven," Ares was muttering earnestly to himself as he let himself out and walked to his own rooms, "I know that my mirror is even, and I have plenty of shields polished up that I could use, too. Maybe I can get one of my minions up to help me ..."


	3. Chapter 3

There was a woman swathed in gold robes laying langorously on the couch. Hermes moved into the room, silent on the piled carpets, and the woman stretched like a cat and tilted her head to regard the god's entrance. Seeing her looking at him, Hermes struck a pose with his hand to his chin as he looked her over in a careful survey, then he sucked in air through his teeth in appreciation.

"Were you waiting up for me, darling?" he asked.

There were no candles, but the Moon was looking in the window and threw an interested light on as much as she could. In the shadows of the open door the goddess on the couch sat up a little and the rustle of her robes was loud in the quiet room. Her hair fell around her face, curtaining what the darkness hid in further mystery. Hermes could not see her face, but her movements suggested a lithe body underneath the wrappings of bedclothes. There was no cooler god than Hermes, but the closeness of his quarry heated his blood.

From behind her veil of hair and shadow, the goddess's voice emerged and enveloped him, "But were you waiting for me, Hermes?"

Her words were a riddle that Hermes couldn't resist and her tone was an invitation he would not turn down. He could not see her, but there was a deep intelligence in that voice, an acknowledgement of all he wanted and could ever want. But when she smoothed a place among the sheets for him to come and sit, he hesitated. It was too easy, he thought, until she laughed and he realized that she was laughing at him. His expression registered no change from the crooked smile that had been so successful with so many women so many times.

"So?" asked Peitho. "What is it that you desire?" she almost purred the final word, but it was not to seduce him. She was still laughing at him.

Hermes leaned forward, and before his face entered the shadow, the Moon shone on his curled lip. He reached out his hand and, with a gentleness that belied his expression, brushed the hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear leaving his hand to trail down the curls to her neck and shoulder and arm. Looking her in the eyes his face approached hers until they were cheek to cheek; his lips brushed against her ear as he murmured softly in her ear, "Not you."

He could feel her cheeks heat as the blood rushed to them, and he smiled in triumph. But when he pulled away he saw the same mocking grin. She lifted her eyebrows in insolent inquiry,

"Did you come to play dice, then? You'd probably have more luck with them than seeking Aphrodite in Peitho's sheets.

For a moment Hermes had no response. Could he have been so easy to foil? His plan to seduce Peitho had ended when her mocking come-on had goaded him to insult her, but he still wasn't quite sure why he had lost his head like that. Forcing a laugh, Hermes produced two dice from her ear by slight of hand and dropped them into her lap where they were promptly lost in the folds of the sheets.

"I'll play you for an introduction," he challenged, not ready to admit complete defeat. But the goddess shook her head,

"You play with loaded dice, God of Tricksters. But I'll play you for a kiss"

Hermes leaned back and if there was hesitation in his eyes, she could not possibly have seen it. When he spoke, his voice was that of the perfect gentleman he knew she knew he was not. "I would not do you the insult, madam, of allowing you to melt in my embrace while my mind is enthralled by another."

He stood and bowed and headed back for the door and heard the sheets rustle as she snuggled back into them. "Then I suppose I must bid you goodnight, since there is nothing more to say to each other," Peitho sounded disappointed, but Hermes could not tell if it was ironic.

He was still trying to figure out what had gone wrong when she called across the room in that beautiful, wry voice, "By the way, I don't think I could stand two such disappointments in one night. Would you mind telling your father to wait until tomorrow? I've simply got to get some sleep tonight, and he'll never find her where she's hidden, anyway." Then, before he could respond she added dismissively, "Thank you, dearest messenger. Sweet dreams."

Hermes shut the door behind him.


End file.
